Remaking Cities: An Introduction to Urban Metrofitting

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Unprecedented challenges await the future of the worlds cities. Accelerating population pressure, climate change, food insecurity, poverty and geopolitical instability in the face of such problems our current attempts at producing a sustainable agenda for the worlds cities appear fragmented and inadequate. Fresh thinking is needed. In Remaking Cities, renowned design theorist Tony Fry brings a conceptual design perspective to the challenge of urban sustainability and resilience. In a typically far-sighted and provocative work, Fry presents ideas and actions for metrofitting a new kind of practice in architecture and urban design. Metrofitting expands the technological concept of retrofit up to the city scale, placing social, cultural, political and ethical concerns at its heart. Metrofitting is not about visionary technology, it is about transforming existing cities by combining available resources with human creativity, prompted by new thinking about new and old urban problems. It requires overcoming outmoded Eurocentric assumptions of what constitutes a city, rethinking their forms and structures, and understanding their metabolic processes and social and economic functions. This book provides conceptually strong practical approaches that will ultimately change the whole way we view cities and the way the urban future is designed. Illustrated with international case studies of metrofitting in action, Remaking Cities will provoke and stimulate debate among architects, urban designers, and anyone concerned with the urban environment and social and cultural change.

Reviews

Re-Making Cities is a theoretically rich and compelling read which takes the reader on a thought-provoking journey through discussion on the future of cities. The intended intellectual contribution of the book is made very clear and the structure allows for a clear narrative whilst retaining a comprehensive critical edge. * Environmental Values *
By scaling up the logic of re-directive practice which he first outlined in Design Futuring, Fry offers us here one of the most compelling theses for how to turn our cities into real agents of sustainable change. * Duncan Fairfax, Lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK *
Tony Fry showcases the reality of the dramatic and unquestionable changes which will befall our cities, our nations, our planet, unless we adapt sufficiently to fast-changing circumstances. * Danilo Palazzo, Director of the University of Cincinnati School of Planning, USA *

Author Bio

Tony Fry directs The Studio at the Edge of the World, is Adjunct Professor, Creative Exchange Institute, University of Tasmania, Australia, and is Visiting Professor University of Ibague, Colombia. He is the author of twelve books, including Design Futuring, Design as Politics and Becoming Human by Design.